Let CalMac take you on a culinary voyage
SCOTTISH seafood is justifiably famous and with CalMac you can take a culinary tour of our west coast islands, tasting food that graces the menus of the world’s best restaurants, caught in the cold, clean waters of the Atlantic.
Fat, juicy langoustines, creel-caught crab, briny mussels and hand-dived scallops are all there to enjoy across our island communities.
Splash out and treat yourself to fine dining in top rated restaurants such as Mull’s Café Fish, or Skye’s Scorrybreac.
The Boathouse on Gigha serves up colourful seafood dishes with a view. It may be closed for the season, but fresh lobster awaits when spring arrives.
If you’re on a tighter budget, there’s no need to miss out – in the Seafood Shack in Ullapool and the Oban Seafood Hut, you can sample top-notch seafood.
But you don’t need to be a Masterchef to rustle up a show-stopping dish yourself, especially when fresh Scottish seafood speaks for itself.
Visit a local fishmonger or seafood merchant and take home some plump mussels, delicious steamed and soaked up with crusty bread, or grill some langoustines in herb butter.
Seafood may dominate the menus at west coast destinations but there’s so much more available from around our shores, including sustainably farmed meats, organic bakeries and, of course, our most famous export – whisky.
The wee island of Islay offers the finest whisky choice. Nowhere else is such a superb range of very different distilleries found so close together amidst such spectacular scenery.
Choose from fiery Islay whiskies such as Ardbeg and Octomore by Bruichladdich, which thanks to its phenol content is technically the world’s peatiest whisky, or opt from something less challenging, like a smooth Bowmore.
The gin renaissance in recent years is another cause for celebration, and there’s no sign that demand for boutique craft gins is slowing down.
The islands have been quick to respond. Try Isle of Harris Gin, infused with sugar kelp, handharvested by a local diver.
Skye, Barra Tiree, Jura, Islay, Kintyre and Campbeltown are also all on CalMac’s destination list, and each boasts their own local gin.
Foodies will also love Isle of Arran Cheese, which specialises in a range of cheddars, including caramelised onion or chilli.
Further north, if you bring one thing back from the Isle of Lewis make sure it’s the worldfamous Stornoway black pudding, the truncheonresembling superfood loved by health enthusiasts and Michelin chefs alike.
Bute boasts edible seaweed, also in demand by top chefs all over the world. Carefully cut by hand from rocks at low tide, you can cook seaweed like a vegetable or use the flavours then throw the weed away. Visit the Just Seaweed shop and spa on Rothesay’s seafront.
And on the Isle of North Uist, the Hebridean smoke house has earned a reputation for producing the very best smoked salmon – in the words of Prue Leith, “the best in the world”. by SALLY HIND A DRIVER who allegedly left a notorious Scots biker gang leader in a coma after a crash in Australia has been warned she faces prison.
William “Jock” Ross, the Glasgow-born founder of the Comanchero biker gang, suffered serious injuries after being thrown from his Harley in Sydney last month.
It’s alleged Nicola Annabel Teo’s 4x4 was travelling on the wrong side of the road when it hit the 76-year-old.
Court documents made public yesterday show Teo, 24, the daughter of a brain surgeon, was released on bail on the condition that she does not get behind the wheel.
The documents also reveal she faces “a possibility of a custodial sentence on conviction”.
Teo was charged with dangerous driving and negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm, not keeping left of a dividing lane and not giving particulars to police.
She’ll appear in court for the first time today.
Prosecutors say CCTV footage shows her Toyota Land Cruiser travelling down the wrong side of the road for up to 650ft before the collision on September 25.
Ross, who served five years in jail for his part in the Milperra biker massacre which left seven people dead in September 1984, needed two life-saving operations after the crash.
His daughter Holly Gittany said earlier this month that her dad was in a “stable condition” in intensive care.
It is understood he’s still in hospital with a serious pelvis injury.
Ross left the bike gang in 2003.